The Sea of Lingyuan was still cold as iron at the end of spring.Wind rose from the foot of the cliffs, heavy with salt and the faint taste of rust.Ye Xuan stood at the edge, a black-silver pin in his palm clinking softly — the message Lan Qi had delivered that morning:The copper ring has returned. The mark was received.
He slipped the pin away and looked down at the gray line of rock barely visible through the tide."The moment has come," he murmured.
Behind him, Lin Ge carried a small bamboo basket — only three things inside: pine torches, fine salt, and hemp rope.Lan Qi bore a short bow without arrows, a bundle of gray feathers tied to it.Su Lin held a small box, his own creation: Mistheart Sand, that turned to fog when damp but never burned in flame.
"Sir," Lan Qi whispered, "if the Void Sect tracks the 'return pin' from their copper ring—"
"Let them track." Ye Xuan's gaze traced the faint arc of the exposed seabed."Some roads are meant to be tested by the enemy's feet."
They fell silent. The cliffside wind tugged at the ends of the rope, making it hum.Ye Xuan stepped down first, his feet light: light, still, turn — the three beats of the Raven Step.The others followed, matching his rhythm. The sea mist parted like cloth drawn aside, revealing a stone path winding toward the sea's heart.
The entrance was narrow and low. The walls glistened with scales of black rock, cold and slick.Ye Xuan raised his torch, its flame dull and tight, wrapped by invisible air.
"A Tide-Breath Formation," Su Lin murmured. "It uses the ocean's pulse to choke the air. Mortal fire dims; spirit flame dies."
"Then use mortal fire." Ye Xuan passed the torch to Lin Ge. "Remember — to move divine intent with mortal means, you must first know what Heaven is watching."
He brushed his fingers over the stone wall. Sea moss and mineral lines crossed in a neat triangle."The salt crust here—look. The eye finds what it expects. Give Heaven's watcher an entrance to see, and it stops looking for the real one."
He pressed the triangle's tip.A deep click echoed; somewhere water retreated, sighing.The wall opened like a breathing lung, revealing a dark corridor.
"The False Gate of Abandonment?" Lan Qi asked."The real path elsewhere?"
Ye Xuan's smile was faint. "Even a false road must be walked with certainty.The breaker of a trap must feel secure — only then does he finish your pattern."
They moved inward.The walls were studded with decayed copper nails, ringed with the bones of sea beasts.Su Lin examined one. "Breathbone Rings. To absorb tide essence and slow erosion. Whoever built this—steady hands."
"Not steady," Ye Xuan said softly. "Reluctant.He built so the next visitor could read his pattern.Even the dead deserve a dialogue."
After another hundred paces, the passage widened into a vast hollow.Pillars of rock ringed a shallow pool at its center — perfectly still, glasslike.
"The Mirror Tide Hollow," Su Lin whispered. "They say it reflects both the body and the heart."
Ye Xuan didn't step closer yet.He ordered Lan Qi to spread Mistheart Sand at the corners, Lin Ge to loop hemp rope around them with three copper tags."When wind stirs, the tags ring. We use their sound to hold our breath steady."
Lan Qi blinked. "To guard against what?"
"Ourselves." Ye Xuan smiled. "Before you face the mirror, you calm your own pulse."
He stood at the water's edge and leaned forward.The surface reflected his face — calm, unwavering.Then, a second image rose beneath it: also him, but with a faint mark of light between his brows, like memory surfacing from the deep.
"Sir—" Lin Ge whispered. Lan Qi reached for his bow; Su Lin tightened his grip on the box.Ye Xuan raised a hand. "Stay."
He spoke to the reflection."Mirror of the Nine Stratagems, if you still remember me, return the first Stratagem."
The water rippled once.From its center lifted a fragment of black glass, curved like a crescent moon.No light shone from it; it drank the light around, pulling shadow and color into itself.
Ye Xuan didn't touch it. He held his fingers an inch above, neither contact nor distance.His Mind Domain unfolded — a thin web of silk over the world.He read:– the drift of air along the rim,– the vapor of Mistheart Sand,– the damp salt at the edge,– the faint quiver of copper tags.Each a line of force.
"Human force. Earth force. Law force." he whispered."This place was built by my former hand; to open it, I must use my present heart."
The mirror quivered.Fine threads of light rose from the depths, brushing at his fingertips."It's responding to your will," Su Lin breathed.
"No," Ye Xuan said, smiling faintly. "It's judging me."
He drew back."I seek not ascension," he told the mirror. "I seek resolution.If you are the fragment of the Nine Stratagems, then you know the first."
A low hum stirred through the hollow, soft as a zither string under water.The sound entered his bones.
—First Stratagem: Take weakness as name, and formation as body.Mortal tools may bear divine intent; mortal designs may borrow Heaven's path.
The words were not heard but remembered.He saw himself — not this self, but the Stratagem Saint of his past life — standing upon a boundless board, its grid made of worlds.The pieces were kingdoms, sects, gods.Across from him stood a man robed in gray, cold and unreadable: Yin Wujiao.He held no piece, only a scroll — the Decree of Law.
"You weave Heaven into a game," Yin Wujiao said. "Then you die by it."
The scene shattered.Worlds fell like dominoes. The board turned over; strings of fate snapped one by one.As he fell into darkness, one thought burned within him: The game is not over.
The hum ceased.The fragment hovered above the water, waiting.
Ye Xuan exhaled slowly. His heart steadied."I understand," he said softly. "You do not ask whether I take you, but with what heart I take you."
He turned to the others."My answer is this: To walk as mortal, to move as pattern. The human path is the true vessel.You will follow me — not toward Heaven, but through men."
The fragment pulsed once, like ink spreading through water, then gathered itself into his palm.Cold. Silent. Awake.
"Do we leave?" Lan Qi asked.
"Soon."Ye Xuan slipped the shard into his sleeve, then froze.A faint vibration — the ring's echo. Someone was rewriting the sigils outside, erasing traces.
"The Void Sect is at the outer ring," Su Lin said. "I'll stop—"
"No."Ye Xuan pressed his palm to the pool. "We won't fight their strength.We'll fight with rule."
He nodded to Lin Ge.The boy dropped the three copper tags into the Mistheart ring.Clang, clang, clang — the sound of bureaucratic measurement, the rhythm of procedure.
"If they erase us," Ye Xuan said, "we'll leave a record they can't erase."He smiled. "From now on, this site is an Imperial Reserve Mine – Sea Inspection Point.We file it under law."
Lan Qi caught on instantly, jotting notes in a small ledger.Su Lin placed a pebble into the wall's crevice."The Inspection Stone. Officials love these — tangible proof."
"Excellent," Ye Xuan said. "A mortal web needs mortal ink."
Outside, faint rings of law hummed — the Disciplinary Division sweeping the cliffs.Ye Xuan led them out quietly.At the passage's mouth, he paused, brushed away a thread of silver dust clinging to seaweed.
"They've been here," Lan Qi said.
"Yes," Ye Xuan replied. "And they'll find the official footprints, not ours."
When they reached the cliffs, the tide had begun to return.Lin Ge glanced back at the dark opening, eyes bright."Sir," he asked, "will the mirror… speak?"
"All things that speak must first learn to listen," Ye Xuan said. "The first Stratagem isn't in the mirror. It's in you."
"In me?"
"In your steps and strokes.When you pick up salt and rope, that's where it begins."
They reached the cliff's edge. Wind rose again.Lan Qi slung his bow and asked, half jest, half truth,"If Yin Wujiao comes himself, what will you do?"
Ye Xuan looked north.A thin shard of light cut the horizon."He will come. But before he does, I'll make the Empire come first."
"The Empire?" Su Lin blinked.
"This hollow is an inspection site," Ye Xuan said."The laws are written: No private trials. No crossing of jurisdiction.If Yin Wujiao acts, he'll step onto the word Mortal itself."
"Paper laws can't stop gods," Lan Qi muttered.
"No. But they delay them."He smiled faintly. "And in delay, we move two steps ahead."
The wind swept the grass flat.Ye Xuan turned to leave, then paused. The mirror shard in his sleeve cooled — a whisper against his skin.He looked back once.The sea shimmered. Somewhere far beyond the waves, a line of gaze — cold, silent — reached from another realm.
"Yin Wujiao," he murmured. "You're watching."
He didn't look again.He walked away — light, still, turn — three beats in the mortal rhythm.Behind him, the tide washed over the stone path, sealing it beneath the waves, leaving only footprints shaped by law.
The mirror fragment lay quiet against his palm, and from deep within, a whisper rose — not to his ears, but from his bones:
—The game is not over.—Continue, with the heart of man.
Ye Xuan smiled faintly."Then watch the path of men."
Wind passed along the cliff.The sea stretched vast and calm below.And the mortal game had begun anew.